Clipmarks | Oortcloud's clips

When is a human a human?

Tue, 04 Nov 2008 23:13:20 GMT

clipped by: Oortcloud
clipper's remarks: "Try this thought experiment: you’re walking down the street, and you see a building on fire. You enter it to help anyone out, and see it’s a lab. On one side is a five-year-old boy, and the other is a petri dish clearly labeled as having a dozen fertilized eggs in it. You only have time to rescue the boy or the eggs. What do you do?

I would argue that it would be, ironically, an inhuman act to rescue the dish. Yet, according to the law if Prop 48 passes, you would have just chosen to let 12 human beings die to save one."

Clip Source: blogs.discovermagazine.com

Can anyone here give me a reason, besides a religious one, that a fertilized egg is a human being? I’m willing to listen.

But let me help you here. It won’t fly to say that it has the coding (DNA) to become a human. Any cell in the body has that. I wouldn’t even accept that it has potential to be human, because the egg and sperm individually have potential to become human, if only they meet. You might counter and say that an egg already has that step done, but there are still many more on the way to being human. An egg can’t become a human without a lot of outside help (from the mother’s body), so the fertilization, while critical, is just one more step in the process. If any number of those steps fail, you don’t get a human out of it.

I might

be talked into saying a fetus becomes human once brain activity starts.

But

What brain activity? Thought? Conscious thought? Does that make an adult gorilla more human than a five-day-old embryo?

Tags: abortion, fertilize, eggs, life

Christian Child Abuse caught on tape

Sat, 14 Jun 2008 18:41:31 GMT

clipped by: Oortcloud
clipper's remarks: Listen to this audio of a 9 year old girl being mentally abused. She is being forced to accept that Harry Potter put the devil in her.

This is child abuse. People like this needs to be locked up, but because of a taboo we allow on discussing religion people like this are allowed to continue, often encouraged.

Pardon me while I go throw up now

Clip Source: www.ihop-shreveport.com

So many people, even some well meaning ones question
why we have public book burnings of Harry Potter. Listen to
this almost unbelievable deliverance of a 9 year old girl. The
demon actually speaks to me through her and reveals that
he entered when she read the book "Sorcerer's Stone". The
demon also says that his mission is to "send her to hell". Is
it not reasonable to think that God would want us to have an
Acts 19"19 book burning in light of the destruction this evil
is doing to our children. Please make your voice heard
beloved !!!

Tags: religion, hypocrissy, mythology, abuse, child abuse

"Horror frog" breaks own bone to form claw

Wed, 04 Jun 2008 17:14:21 GMT

clipped by: Oortcloud
clipper's remarks: Life is just full of little surprises. A hairy frog? Weird.

Clip Source: www.newscientist.com

"Amphibian horror" isn't a movie genre, but on this evidence perhaps it should be. Harvard biologists have described a bizarre, hairy frog with cat-like extendable claws.

Trichobatrachus robustus actively breaks its own bones to produce claws that puncture their way out of the frog's toe pads, probably when it is threatened.

"Some other frogs have bony spines that project from their wrist, but in those species it appears that the bones grow through the skin rather than pierce it when needed for defence," says Blackburn.

The end result may look like a cat's claw, but the breaking and cutting mechanism is very different and unique among vertebrates. Also unique is the fact that the claw is just bone and does not have an outer coating of keratin like other claws do.

"Being amphibians, it would not be surprising if some parts of the wound heal and the tissue is regenerated," says Blackburn.

No doomsday in 2012

Tue, 20 May 2008 15:04:38 GMT

clipped by: Oortcloud
clipper's remarks: You know when you look back on your life and you say, "boy was I an idiot back then"? Well I think a lot of people are going to feel the same way after December 22, 2012 ... kinda like everyone did after Jan 1, 2000.

Clip Source: www.universetoday.com

Apparently, the world is going to end on December 21st, 2012. Yes, you read correctly, in some way, shape or form, the Earth (or at least a large portion of humans on the planet) will cease to exist. Stop planning your careers, don't bother buying a house, and be sure to spend the last years of your life doing something you always wanted to do but never had the time. Now you have the time, four years of time, to enjoy yourselves before… the end.

For all those 2012 Mayan Prophecy believers out there, I have bad news. There is going to be no doomsday event in 2012, and here's why…

Tags: mayan, end of world, 2012, end days

Ood Behavio(u)r

Mon, 12 May 2008 06:00:03 GMT

clipped by: Oortcloud

Clip Source: www.badastronomy.com

Years ago, people posting fan sites for Star Trek were threatened with legal action by Viacom. Same with Simpsons fans and Fox. For some reason, these megacorps were really really wringing their hands that some fan someplace might actually be promoting their shows! Mind you, in most cases the biggest infraction these fan sites were guilty of was posting pictures from the show. But otherwise, what they were doing was basically free advertising. In fact, it was even better; ads are annoying, but fan sites actually can build communities of thousands of people, all of whom will watch the show and spread the word.

Full Moon Makes people crazy!

Wed, 07 May 2008 05:15:47 GMT

clipped by: Oortcloud

Clip Source: cectic.com

Better Airflight pattern video - more in depth

Tue, 29 Apr 2008 15:24:19 GMT

clipped by: Oortcloud
clipper's remarks: This is a better video than my previous clip. It shows data along with focus on flight patterns and explanations.

Clip Source: youtube.com

[Video]

Airplane flight patterns over the US

Tue, 29 Apr 2008 05:24:22 GMT

clipped by: Oortcloud
clipper's remarks: Very cool animation. Might have to go to the source to get movie to work.

Clip Source: antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov

Intelligent design being expelled

Mon, 28 Apr 2008 15:38:33 GMT

clipped by: Oortcloud

Clip Source: exchristian.net

[Video]

Shame on Big Science for trying to squash Intelligent Design -- something I confirmed with only about an hour of research. Who knew that science is worse than Hitler?

Saving lives is better than Saying Prayers

Mon, 28 Apr 2008 15:29:39 GMT

clipped by: Oortcloud
clipper's remarks: Reality - sometimes its hard to face.

Clip Source: exchristian.net

I’m sure that many readers have heard that Thursday is the National Day of Prayer. It’s supposed to be a day when believers of all faiths gather to kneel down and pray for healing, hope and peace

I do appreciate the sentiment, and I know prayer makes those doing the praying feel better, but unfortunately prayer is one of the most objectively ineffective and useless forms of assistance. Other than making those doing the praying “feel better,” numerous studies have shown time and again that prayer fails to benefit those who are prayed for, and at best it is no better than a placebo. As an atheist, that just seems like a tremendous waste of time and personal effort, which I’d prefer to see spent in a more unselfish and demonstrably beneficial way.

For the last two years I’ve participated in the National Gift of Life Day (see www.centerforatheism.org), which is an organized effort to get atheists, agnostics and nonbelievers to donate blood

Ben Stein's Selective Quoting of Darwin

Mon, 28 Apr 2008 15:25:31 GMT

clipped by: Oortcloud
clipper's remarks: Is anyone surprised at this at all? Any ID'ers or Creationists want to refute this? Gotta love the hypocritical attitude of those always crying "context"!

Clip Source: exchristian.net

One of the many egregious moments in the new Ben Stein anti-evolution film "Expelled" is the truncation of a quote from Charles Darwin so that it makes him appear to give philosophical ammunition to the Nazis. Steve Mirsky reports in the Scientific American's 60-Second Science podcast.

Well, I’ve been covering the anti-evolution crowd for over 20 years. So I immediately suspected that the propaganda-makers had engaged in what’s called quote-mining—you examine the writings of somebody you want to smear and then selectively quote those portions that appear to make your point. I bet that whatever came immediately after the quoted portion would be something that Stein wouldn’t want you to hear. My research took all of about three minutes. I went to a full text of Descent of Man online and found the quoted passage. And then found the sentences that come right after where Stein stopped quoting.

Leads to kind of the very opposite impression of Darwin that the filmmakers want you to take away.

No Sun-Link with Global Warming

Wed, 16 Apr 2008 05:21:01 GMT

clipped by: Oortcloud

Clip Source: www.universetoday.com

The connection between solar activity and global warming has been a contentious issue for a long time. The idea that cosmic rays create global cloud cover just doesn't seem to be working out; even the highest estimates of cloud cover variation caused by cosmic ray flux predict the effect to be very small. Now UK scientists have stepped into the debate, producing scientific evidence that there is no link between global warming, cosmic rays and solar activity. Sorry global warming sceptics, we might have to cut back on the emissions after all…

The Sun/cosmic-ray theory has no measurable effect on the climate change we are currently experiencing.

New show for the rational mind : Skeptologist

Wed, 09 Apr 2008 16:44:22 GMT

clipped by: Oortcloud
clipper's remarks: Finally a show is coming on to debunk some of the most outrageous claims made by people. Right now the show is shooting the pilot episodes and looking to get support from the television industry. Drop them an email as support to show that television shows like this do have a market and people are getting tired of ghost story, UFO, and Bigfoot shows of drivel.

Clip Source: www.badastronomy.com

Very cool: the folks at New Rule Productions put together a quick teaser trailer for The Skeptologists. I’ve uploaded it to Youtube:

[Video]

Also, if you want to support the show

you can send an email to skeptologists@newrule.com. You’ll get an automated reply, but we’re collecting emails to show networks that there is a demand for quality shows for intelligent people who don’t buy into all the nonsense being aired right now.

Tags: skeptic, rational, logic, show, series, new

Parents pick faith over medicine. Child dies.

Fri, 28 Mar 2008 17:24:34 GMT

clipped by: Oortcloud
clipper's remarks: Another tragedy that could have been avoided with a little less delusion and a little more rationality.

Clip Source: www.livescience.com

WESTON, Wis. (AP) — Police are investigating an 11-year-old girl's death from an undiagnosed, treatable form of diabetes after her parents chose to pray for her rather than take her to a doctor.

She had probably been ill for about a month, suffering symptoms such as nausea, vomiting, excessive thirst, loss of appetite and weakness, the chief said Wednesday, noting that he expects to complete the investigation by Friday and forward the results to the district attorney.

"My sister-in-law, she's very religious, she believes in faith instead of doctors ...,'' the girl's aunt told a sheriff's dispatcher Sunday afternoon in a call from California. "And she called my mother-in-law today ... and she explained to us that she believes her daughter's in a coma now and she's relying on faith.''

"Please,'' the woman replied. "I mean, she's refusing. She's going to fight it. ... We've been trying to get her to take her to the hospital for a week, a few days now.''

Evolution IS a Blind Watchmaker

Mon, 18 Feb 2008 03:20:57 GMT

clipped by: Oortcloud
clipper's remarks: This is the best example of how the "Watchmaker" argument is complete fluff and shows once again why creationists really don't understand what it is they are talking about when they present arguments such as "The Watch Maker" or "The Jet in the Junkyard".

Clip Source: www.youtube.com

[Video]

In this video I deconstruct the broken watch straw man argument used by creationist / ID supporters to attack evolution. I had to pack a ton of information into this video so you WILL need to pause it periodically.

The basic premise of the argument is that a bunch of parts will never randomly assemble into the correct arrangement to form a properly functioning complex. Once again, creationists / ID supporters miss the basic concept of evolution entirely. No biologists believes, nor is there any evidence that complex systems form spontaneously in one fell swoop. That would be creation. Systems evolve through many intermediates, one step at a time, slowly building up the complexity.

Here I deconstruct their straw man argument. Basically, I simulate clocks as living organisms. Selective pressure is focused on their ability to accurately tell time. NO goal is imposed on the design (you can tell this because every simulation ends with a differently constructed clock). And it works.

Tags: watch maker, creation, evolution, religon, god